2011/01/30 by Jason Cloud, Cloud, Jason, Linda Zeger +3
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced Wireless Network Optimization #Cooperative Communication and Network Coding #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Wireless Networks and Protocols
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1101.5779
openalex publication_date 2011/01/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We design a cross-layer approach to optimize the joint use of multi-packet reception and network coding, in order to relieve congestion. We construct a model for the behavior of the 802.11 MAC and apply it to several key canonical topology components and their extensions to any number of nodes. The results obtained from this model match the available experimental results, which are for routing and opportunistic network coding, with fidelity. Using this model, we show that fairness allocation by the MAC can seriously impact performance; hence, we devise a new MAC that not only substantially improves throughput relative to the current 802.11 MAC, but also provides fairness to flows of information rather than to nodes. We show that the proper combination of network coding, multi-packet reception, and our new MAC protocol achieves super-additive throughput gains of up to 6.3 times that of routing alone with the use of the standard 802.11 MAC. Finally, we extend the model to analyze the asymptotic behavior of our new MAC as the number of nodes increases.